Life is short. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now.

This week officially begins a new chapter for me.

Just a little over two years ago, I sat down to write a novel, something I’d been wanting to do for a long while. It got off to a rocky start; I ended up with three distinct beginnings to three very different stories, and there I sat: stuck. So I signed up to work with an accomplished writer and editor for eight weeks and received the kind of guidance and feedback that helped me push through. I found my story. I figured out who my main character really is, what she wants, and what she doesn’t even know she wants. I was on my way. What a relief!

Wow! Since my last blog post on Thursday, I have been so humbled by the number of people who have chosen to share their own stories of stepping into their full potential by starting a business! (I’ll be sharing these inspiring stories in the days and weeks to come, so stay tuned…)

Many of you have also participated in my online survey, the responses to which are helping me to design and develop entrepreneurial training and masterminding that is relevant, meaningful and uplifting, and for this I say THANK YOU!Thank you for making my task easier 🙂 but more so for playing a valuable role in helping aspiring, new and even established entrepreneurs on the journey that is business ownership. It’s going to be so much more fun taking that journey together, by virtue of the programs I’m developing with your help!

This time last year, I was about three months into my new lifestyle on Mount Desert Island, Maine – something we’d dreamed about and planned for years! That was the “upside.”

The “downside” (if you can really find a downside to finally living in your vision of paradise!) was that my business revenues were at less than half of where they had been just three years earlier.

This was not primarily due to the move, mind you, but rather to the fact that the industry “basket” into which I had placed all my “eggs” (homebuilding) had been decimated by the economic realities of the day.

And while I had been slowly repositioning my business to serve a more diverse clientele and to focus on social media, online, and email marketing, the months-long process of preparing for and actually making the move did take away from my business-building (or, should I say, rebuilding) activities.

What’s Around the Bend?

After catching my breath by spending much of last Summer as a bit of a tourist in my new hometown, in the Fall I began in earnest to rebuild and re-brand my business.

It must happen to a lot of people, I think … that time in your “social” life (i.e., your online presence) when you ask yourself, “Who am I?” One day you wake up and find that you’ve embraced social media and the world wide web to the point where you’re a member of virtually every “next big thing” online community, having collected online identities and passwords like a CIA agent in deep cover.

And, I don’t mind telling you, it had become something of a logistical nightmare, trying to keep my “business” side segregated from my “personal” side from my “photographer” side from my “street smart observations on life” side. So recently I decided to just let all the facets of my personality and interests mingle again, and you know what? I found that more people responded to my posts and wanted to interact with me! So I came to the conclusion that it was finally time to consolidate at least a couple of my multiple online personalities. 🙂

My decision was helped along by the fact that two of my domain names were expiring later this week as was the hosting on another in early December, so the timing was good. (Sometimes we all need a little extra kick in the pants to do what needs to be done!)

So I decided to go with a more memorable domain consisting of nothing more than my name. I think this new approach will help “tell my story” better than any of my previous incarnations. In addition to bringing clarity to my clients, prospective clients, colleagues and friends, I feel this change already bringing more clarity to my vision for myself and my business for 2011 and beyond, as well.

I look forward to sharing more of myself with you here – not only online and social media marketing insights and strategies, but also other interesting, entertaining and fun stuff, too.

So … please bookmark this page because by the end of this week the website BeaconPointAssociates.com will be offline permanently. This new site incorporates both BeaconPointAssociates.com and my blog, ChartYourCourse.net. I’ll continue to have a personal profile and a business page on Facebook; still deciding what to do about my multiple Twitter accounts, but I didn’t want to wait any longer to combine the website and the blog – can’t have my business colleagues searching and unable to find me!